Close to 400 students compete in annual DuPont Salem County Science Fair

CARNEYS POINT TWP. — The 23rd Annual Salem County Science Fair was held here at Salem Community College on Friday, as students from throughout the county presented experiments which sought to answer some of science’s most burning questions.

If you have ever wondered which soda is most reactive with mentos, Pennsville Middle School student Logan Beals could give you an answer. Or if you’ve wondered if you can judge humidity levels from a strand of your hair, Rachel Burzinski at Pittsgrove Township Middle School is an expert.

More than 400 students, ranging grades fifth through twelfth, from every school district in the county gathered in the gym at SCC’s Davidow Hall Friday to present their science projects for judging.

The students were divided into three divisions by grade, as experts from the community reviewed and judged the projects.

According to DuPont Partners in Science Coordinator Mary Ellen Hassler, local schools partnered with DuPont to help student-scientists develop their projects.

“You can tell how much some of the students really put into their projects, and that a lot of them really enjoyed it,” said Hassler.

Students developed projects in the areas of math, environmental science, engineering, physics, chemistry and more, putting the scientific method into action.

Salem Middle School student Ramon Roots presented his project, “Which Fruit Produces the Most Electricity,” which looked at the strength of electric currents through different fruits.

“I found that lemons have the most direct current voltage, because they have the most acid,” said Roots.

Bryson Townsend, a sixth grader at Pennsville Middle School, measured friction across different surfaces by timing the speed of a derby car on metal, wood and plastic.Townsend that while the project was challenging at times with a lot of hard work, he really enjoyed his science project.

“Sometimes it was hard with all the reports we had to do. I have a whole notebook of reports and information,” he said. “But I liked doing the project. It was really, really fun.”

Julia Cunningham, an eighth grader in Pennsville, showed off her project “Peeping Pipes,” which looked at the functionality of homemade incubators against store bought incubators to hatch chickens.

“This was actually really fun. I didn’t dread doing the project at all,” said Cunningham. “I was doing research for a month and a half, but I was really into it.”

Students were encouraged by their teachers to examine areas that interested them to increase motivation for the projects and challenge their way of thinking.

“We told them to try to choose something of interest and have fun with the project,” said Salem Middle School science teacher Ally Bey. “I think the biggest challenge for students was analyzing what happened in their experiments, versus what they thought was going to happen. A lot of students thought they might’ve done something wrong and struggled with that idea.”

Penns Grove Middle School science teacher Tim Elwell added, “We tried to show students that the scientific method can be applied to anything in life.”

Winning projects will be named from each of the three divisions. There will be awards given to Best in Fair, the South Jersey Chapter of the American Chemical Society Award, and Best in Sixth Grade.

One project will also be awarded the Charles J. Pederson Memorial Award, named after the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who worked at DuPont.

Judges volunteered their time from DuPont, the Memorial Hospital of Salem County, Campbell Soup, Salem Community College, and EMD Chemicals.

All of the students’ projects were judged throughout the day. An awards ceremony to announce winners was expected to be held Friday evening.